Inspiration 2.3

Ponyo Ponyo, fish in the sea (such a catchy little song for the credits). Ahh Ponyo (directed by Hayao Miyazaki) was amazing. I'm a big fan of Studio Ghibli and am just so pleased that their latest animation was as good as the rest.

As Ponyo started her life as a goldfish, initially, a lot of the story is based underwater which was perfect for me. The animation is incredible and with each frame drawn by hand, 170000 separate frames were created (a record for a Miyazaki film).

I have taken a lot of inspiration from the film including the music, animation style and narrative. Take a look at the trailer and you will see why.

Inspiration 2.2

Vegeterrible is a waaaay good animation. I love it all. The visuals are stunning, with some beautiful shot transitions (from the market to kitchen especially) and camera angles. The characters work really well and then the sound effects and sound track bring all the elements together. It's quirky and funny too which is a bonus.

If you have 3 minutes spare and you want a good time, take a look.

Inspiration 2.1

Here is where my biggest inspiration has come from. Shelly (created by Johnny Kelly who is an incredible animator) is the tale of a lobster fascinated by music. Finding this after thinking of my initial idea really helped as it directed my production in to a similar form. I wish to use a style close to this and have a narrator reading the short story as the animation plays. I love the colours, the simple line drawings, the simple soundtrack and the amazing camera angles.

Animating this well will be hard but I hope I can achieve a piece this successful. Press play and focus your eyes on to its beauty!

Inspiration 2.0

Lance The Seahorse will be a illustrated cell animation so inspiration for the piece is vast. I'll start with my earliest inspiration. For me, like any kid, Disney played a huge part in my childhood (I went to the cinema 6 times to see the Lion King) and Fantasia's sequence under the sea is as good as it gets. I could go in to why it's an inspiration but it's pretty obvious being set under water and all.

Why not take a look and see?

The animation is incredible. This was in the 1940's, no CGI, only amazing talent. The animators had to be so aware of 3D space and how the subjects would work within it let alone considering the frame rates, pace, edits and everything else. This piece gives me inspiration for my own animation and to one day be able to do this kind of animation without CGI.

Animation Test

So here is Lance chilling out in the ocean. He will wriggle his tail if he likes you so stare at him with intent.

From this test you can see that style I will be using for the whole piece. I want to see how far I can push my animating skills so I am illustrating the animation frame by frame. It will be fun but take time.

Anyway, enjoy Lance.

Working Title "Lance The Seahorse"

'Lance had always had dreams. Some people may tell you that seahorses don't dream, well I'll tell you there are exceptions to every rule and Lance was just that, an exception.'

Meet Lance. Isn't he pretty looking!? He is one seahorse who has ambitions beyond his ocean dwelling. His biggest wish is to, one day, become a real horse. Will his wish ever come true?

Using a simplistic style and 12 frames per second stop motion illustrated animation I want the piece to look extremely stylised and have a "rough around the edges" look but maintain enough charm to communicate the narrative. The narrative has been written as a short story which will be read by a narrator whilst the animation plays.

As much as I said I didn't want my final university project to be character based considering the sheer amount of time I spent on Factory Defaults I have decided that this project is, surprise surprise, character based. YAY for characters and the amount of time I will have to put in to them!